Page 20 of Getting Hitched

So much for Gray’s instinct on that. Apparently it was business as usual for Williams. He blew out a long breath and surveyed the area. A flash of movement caught his attention. A boy grabbed a cat as it was about to bound up a tree.

The boy looked up. When he realized Gray was watching him, he started to run.

“Wait. I just want to talk to you.” Gray took off after him. The boy was fast, but Gray managed to cut him off, blocking his exit from the fenced-in lot behind the warehouse.

“I just want to talk.”

“My mama said not to talk to cops.”

The boy looked about thirteen. Where was his mother? Was he the one who’d been living in the warehouse?

“What if talking could help people?”

“She said cops just make things worse.”

“Unfortunately, that does happen sometimes, but other times we help people. Do you know something about what’s been going on at the warehouse?”

“Why should I trust you?”

Gray wished he had a good answer for that, one the boy would believe. He kept his hands away from his weapon, his posture relaxed and as nonthreatening as a man his size could be. “Because I’m asking you to. I need your help.”

“The man that owns the warehouse will kill me if I talk,” the boy said.

Gray wanted to promise to protect the boy, but until he knew more, he couldn’t do that.

“What’s your name?” Gray asked.

The boy hesitated for several seconds, then said, “Jeremiah.”

“I’m Gray. Has the man who owns this place threatened you?”

“No, but I know what kind of man he is. He kills people.”

“I know it’s scary to talk?—”

“I ain’t scared.”

Gray held up his hand. “I didn’t mean to imply that. It’s hard to decide when to tell what you know, but we could help everyone in the neighborhood if we cleared him out of here.”

“Someone else will just take his place.”

That was probably true. Some days this job really sucked.

“We don’t know that for sure. Maybe a legitimate business will buy the warehouse.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m going tell you what I know, but only because he tried to shoot my cat, and because you didn’t order me to.”

Gray looked down at the cat. It was the same one that had leaped at him earlier in the week. He’d try not to hold it against the animal.

“If I showed you some sketches, would you be able to tell me if one of them is the owner?”

Jeremiah nodded.

“You’ll wait here while I get them?”

He nodded again.

Gray prayed he wasn’t making a mistake as he jogged to his car, grabbed the folder he needed, and hurried back. Jeremiah and the cat were still there, both giving him wary looks.

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